Introduction: Tamara Rubin is an independent advocate for consumer goods safety, and she is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children. She began testing consumer goods for toxicants in 2009 and was the parent-advocate responsible for finding Lead in the popular fidget spinner toys in 2017. She uses high-precision XRF testing (a scientific method used by the Consumer Product Safety Commission) to test consumer goods for metallic contaminants – including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic.
Is this a problem (to find toxic heavy metals in glass marbles?)
The presence of these toxicants does not necessarily mean that these marbles will directly harm a child using them. My concern is more for “the planet ” (i.e. our habitat), and for well — the principle of the thing!… Regardless of regulatory standards (and the various huge, glaring loopholes within those regulations), and no matter whether there is any direct risk to the “user “ (a particular child) it is my firm belief that children’s toys should never test positive for any level of even one toxicant — let alone four separate potent neurotoxins and carcinogens!
Additives vs. Contaminants
Toys containing heavy metals is inexcusably offensive in principle; at these levels (primarily the levels of Antimony and Arsenic found), these are not “trace contaminants” — they are ingredients deliberately chosen and used in the manufacturing process. The colors in these particular marbles were made by adding incredibly toxic, environmentally disastrous heavy metals to the molten glass.
Primary motive: “cost-savings”vs. safer alternatives
Whereas using toxic metals to produce vibrant colors yields a cheap product that is cute, lovely, and generally thought to be harmless to the user, the direct and indirect devastating environmental contamination, and poisoning of communities – including plenty of children – throughout the world as a result of the mining, refining, and manufacturing exposure to these toxicants is profound and unavoidable. Moreover — and this is key — there are non-toxic alternatives to the use of these particular toxic substances which achieve the same results, minus the unacceptable environmental and human costs.
XRF testing of toy marbles purchased at the Dollar Tree Store.
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#1) White swirl inside clear (above):
- Lead (Pb): 161 +/- 32 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 223 +/- 34 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 20,200 +/- 700 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 310 +/- 66 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 942 +/- 182 ppm
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#2) Light orange swirl inside clear (above):
#2) Light orange swirl inside clear (above):- Lead (Pb): 69 +/- 28 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 78 +/- 39 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 1,365 +/- 80 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 13,800 +/- 700 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 83 +/- 43 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 316 +/- 89 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 1,108 +/- 215 ppm
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#3) Dark orange swirl inside clear (above)
#3) Dark orange swirl inside clear (above)- Lead (Pb): 252 +/- 39 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 208 +/- 33 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 171 +/- 36 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 18,500 +/- 700 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 280 +/- 67 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 953 +/- 181 ppm
#4) Dark blue swirl inside clear
- Lead (Pb): 45 +/- 28 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 59 +/- 35 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 988 +/- 75 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 31,300 +/- 1,200 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 93 +/- 49 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 149 +/- 76 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 668 +/- 239 ppm
#5) Light blue swirl inside clear
- Lead (Pb): 54 +/- 21 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 46 +/- 30 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 1,159 +/- 59 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 15,900 +/- 600 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 132 +/- 34 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 258 +/- 69 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 845 +/- 173 ppm
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#6) Turquoise blue swirl inside clear (above)
- Arsenic (As): 1,253 +/- 82 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 13,600 +/- 800 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 67 +/- 40 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 220 +/- 95 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 1,013 +/- 232 ppm
#7) Light green inside clear
- Lead (Pb): 49 +/- 21 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 56 +/- 30 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 1,251 +/- 61 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 14,800 +/- 600 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 83 +/- 45 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 359 +/- 70 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 210 +/- 55 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 1,022 +/- 176 ppm
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#8) Yellow inside clear
#8) Yellow inside clear- Lead (Pb): 86 +/- 26 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 48 +/- 29 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 221 +/- 30 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 19,000 +/- 700 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 51 +/- 29 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 232 +/- 65 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 744 +/- 170 ppm
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#9) White with red, yellow and blue swirls
- Cadmium (Cd): 457 +/- 52 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 337 +/- 46 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 6,048 +/- 527 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 46 +/- 26 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 143 +/- 89 ppm
- Selenium (Se): 251 +/- 53 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 11,900 +/- 400 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 885 +/- 155 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 158 +/ – 61 ppm
As always, thank you for reading and sharing my posts. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
We have marbles from a larger box full of them, with the exact same packaging branding/graphic design, from Walmart (around 2015 I think). We play with them all the time. But I may just stick them in a jar on a shelf to look pretty…
I’m totally with you that we shouldn’t encourage/support/buy things that use these ugly manufacturing processes like this. But I wanted to make sure I understood what I read above – Having already bought these, do you think they are unlikely to cause any harm to a child’s heatlh just by handling them?
Additional question-
I bought a couple of large, greenish/blueish marbles from a display bowl on the counter at an antique shop. Should I assume that any ‘antique’, colored glass is going to have contaminates like these? Are they an issue to handle, or safe as along as we aren’t licking them?
Thank you so much for letting us ask questions like these, on your helpful posts!
Short answer is yes. Antiques in particular did not really worry about what they were adding to their products or did not recognize the dangers. There are regulations now and loop holes. But unless you can actually test the product, you won’t know for 100% certainty. I doubt the glass itself could harm you from simply playing with them though. It’s more the colouring on the inside if chipped or broken.
These were Made in China. Although it might be the same if made in the US. Maybe in Europe they would not have these contaminates? Was the glass itself laced with any toxins? Lead for instance? Or just the inside colouring to get the brilliance that we all expect?
It’s the colorants in the glass. Country of origin doesn’t really matter. I haven’t found toxicant-free marbles.
Tamara